Chicago Sun-Times 01/12/01
Personal e-mail finds unintended audience
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/col12.html
by Susan Dodge
Higher Education Reporter
The power of e-mail became all too apparent Thursday to the president of
Columbia College.
An e-mail by Warrick Carter, president of the college in the Loop since
September, was accidentally forwarded to hundreds of faculty and staff,
raising questions about whether he and others concealed that fact that he had
been laid off from the Walt Disney Co. before being hired at Columbia.
Carter, 57, has a four-year contract with Columbia and an annual salary of
$250,000.
He sent an e-mail Thursday morning to a Georgia mortgage company, explaining
that he had been laid off from Disney. He sent a copy to his e-mail address
at Columbia. A glitch in the internal e-mail system at Columbia allowed
hundreds of faculty and staff at Columbia to get the e-mail as well.
CNSNews.com 01/11/01
Lawsuit seeks gun buy-back records
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=\Culture\archive\200101\CUL2001011
1b.html
by Gene J. Koprowski
Chicago (CNSNews.com) - A libertarian activist in Illinois is filing a
lawsuit this week against Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheahan, charging
violations of the Freedom of Information Act as part of an alleged, ongoing
cover-up of a "badly mismanaged" government gun buy-back operation.
The plaintiff is Matt Beauchamp, chairman of the Libertarian Party of Chicago
and last year's Libertarian Party nominee in Illinois' Fifth Congressional
District. His suit is being filed in the county court here Friday.
The case stems from a 1999 gun buy-back, sponsored by the Cook County
sheriff, as part of the local gun control policy agenda. During September of
1999, the county sheriff urged local citizens to turn in old firearms in
exchange for $50. No questions asked. The idea was that the buy-back would
encourage criminals -- or would-be criminals -- to turn over their weapons,
without liability or possible prosecution.
The Wichita Eagle 01/12/01
Eagle, KWCH fight to open homicide files
http://web.wichitaeagle.com/content/wichitaeagle/2001/01/12/localnews/motion01
11_txt.htm
by Tim Potter
The Wichita Eagle and KWCH, Channel 12, filed a court motion Thursday to
remove a judge's seal of documents on last month's two quadruple homicides.
The motion argues that the documents -- including copies of emergency
dispatch tapes, Emergency Medical Service records and police crime reports --
could be released to better inform the public, without jeopardizing fair
trials.
The district attorney's office and defense lawyers disagree.
The motion has been set for a hearing at 1:30 p.m. next Friday before
District Judge Clark Owens, who ordered the seal.
The Irish Times 01/12/01
Monday ruling on Lawlor contempt case
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2001/0112/courts1.htm
The High Court will rule on Monday whether Dublin West TD Mr Liam Lawlor is
in contempt of court orders.
This would be because of his failure to provide the Flood tribunal with full
discovery of documents and financial records and failing to answer its
questions on his financial affairs.
A finding that he is in contempt could lead to him being fined and/or
imprisoned.
Tribunal counsel said yesterday it was not credible for Mr Lawlor to assert
he had no recollection about where £2.5 million had come from and urged that
he be found in contempt.
The tribunal also claimed that many of the documents given by Mr Lawlor to it
related to matters which it was already aware of. Mr Lawlor knew this.
ABCNews .com 01/12/01
Labs to check e-mail for security breaches
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20010112_694.html
Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ The Department of Energy plans to start inspecting
all electronic mail entering or leaving four national laboratories, in a
pilot program designed to prevent spying. DOE officials issued a notice
Monday establishing the "Electronic Mail Analysis Capability."
The Oracle 01/12/01
Lawyer sues for more records in U. South Florida discrimination lawsuit
http://news.excite.com/news/uw/010111/university-172
by Patty Kim
(U-WIRE) TAMPA, Fla. -- Jonathan Alpert, attorney for the eight former
women's basketball players with racial discrimination lawsuits against the
University of South Florida, filed yet another lawsuit Monday to access
public records related to the case.
Alpert is requesting e-mails from former women's basketball coach Jerry Ann
Winters dating back to 1996, taped conversations Winters made, written memos
and other records related to his clients. He said once he reviews the
documents, he is determined to uncover what the university knew and when.
"I've been asking for access to those public records since Nov. 2," Alpert
said.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette 01/12/01
Meetings, documents to be more open, county judge says
http://www.ardemgaz.com/week/Fri/nwa/A1nwreorganize12.html
by Kirstan Conley
BENTONVILLE -- Benton County Judge Gary Black announced that he takes full
responsibility for his mistakes and promised to make Quorum Court documents
routinely available to the public and the press.
Black's statement, at the Quorum Court's first meeting this year, comes after
he and other elected officials faced harsh criticism for drafting and
revising the county budget in closed-door meetings. Justices of the peace and
taxpayers criticized Black, former County Judge Travis Harp and other budget
committee members for raising elected officials' salaries in the 2001 budget
without informing the public.
The Press of Atlantic City 01/11/01
Atlantic County scans records into computers
http://www.pressplus.com/atlantic/979220494.html
by Marsha Gilbert
MAYS LANDING - Rows and rows of books - some with browning, crumbling pages -
one day will be obsolete as more county clerk's offices scan information into
computers.
The Atlantic County Clerk's Office is one of six counties that has received
certification from the State's Records Committee for its method of preserving
information with a new image-processing system, said Albin Wagner, chief of
the bureau of Records Management for the Division of Archives and Records
Management.
The other counties are Burlington, Cape May, Middlesex, Monmouth and
Gloucester.
Several others are in the process of installing systems or working to meet
the committee's standards, Wagner said.
The Wichita Eagle 01/11/01
Sealed records stop probe of EMS delay
http://web.wichitaeagle.com/content/wichitaeagle/2001/01/12/localnews/ems0111_
txt.htm
by Tim Potter
Officials can't yet review paramedics' apparent delay in treating a quadruple
homicide victim last month because a court order sealed records related to
the criminal investigation, a Sedgwick County spokeswoman said.
Any review would be pending a lifting of the seal, the county said Thursday
in a news release.
It would be up to the court to decide whether any findings could be made
public, said Kristi Zukovich, the spokeswoman.
St. Petersburg Times 01/12/01
Contractor vows to put the EDC out of business
http://www.sptimes.com/News/011201/Citrus/Contractor_vows_to_pu.shtml
by Bridget Hall Grumet
CRYSTAL RIVER -- After publicly attacking the Economic Development Council in
several paid newspaper advertisements in recent weeks, contractor Scott Adams
came to Thursday's council meeting announcing his intention to shut down the
group.
Adams believes that the council, a public-private organization that receives
county funding to promote business growth, has violated the state public
records law by failing to name a records custodian.
He also charged that the council has helped certain businesses skirt the
permitting process, while refusing to help him fight the county over required
permits that he believes his logging business does not need.
Adams said he has been gathering evidence of those and other "dirty deeds,"
and plans to file a lawsuit that would seek to stop county funding of the
council.
WVEC.com 01/11/01 (Thanks to Michele Trader of Newport News for this story)
Mishandled checks give all document shredding companies a bad name
http://www.wvec.com/news/local/shredded_checks_folo.htm
Taylor Document Management Company, based in Norfolk, shreds and stores
thousands of pounds of paper each month. Confidentiality is key and the staff
goes through intensive security checks and drug screening.
"Information today is very important to us," said document specialist Bill
Valos. "It's bank account numbers, social security numbers, a lot more people
trying to take advantage of other people. That's one of the things our
clients are trying to protect themselves from."
International Herald Tribune 01/12/01
Leftist sides with Kohl in spy file government
The Interior Minister opposes using records against ex-chancellor
http://www.iht.com/articles/7304.html
by Roger Cohen
New York Times Service
Berlin -- Otto Schily, the German interior minister and a lawyer by training,
has defended many people in his time, including members of the Red Army
Faction revolutionary group. A doyen of the German left, he is not known for
leaping to the defense of conservative rivals like former Chancellor Helmut
Kohl. .So it was a surprise to find Mr. Schily spending much of an interview
insisting on Mr. Kohl's "constitutional rights" even as he said Mr. Kohl had
"violated the constitution" by accepting anonymous contributions to his
Christian Democratic party while in office. .The events that led to this
unlikely defense of a political opponent give it a typically German twist.
.As chancellor from 1982 to 1998, Mr. Kohl accepted millions of dollars for
his party without, as the law requires, naming the donors. At the same time,
he was under surveillance by the East German security services, or Stasi.
Croatia Today 01/12/01
Croatia freezes Tudjman Archives for 30 years
http://www.centraleurope.com/croatiatoday/news.php3?id=253320
by Reuters
ZAGREB, Jan 12, 2001 -- (Reuters) Croatia has decided to freeze for 30 years
the archives containing tapes and transcripts of conversations between late
President Franjo Tudjman and other state officials, the Vecernji List daily
reported on Friday.
The report said the reformist coalition government, which took over from
Tudjman's nationalists a year ago, had decided on Thursday that the material
-- parts of which have already been leaked to the media -- should be kept in
a safe at the national archive until 2031.
The Wichita Eagle 01/13/01
DA, public interest clash over records
http://web.wichitaeagle.com/content/wichitaeagle/2001/01/13/crimecourts/seal01
13_txt.htm
by Ron Sylvester
Authorities stirred mixed reactions when they sealed virtually every drop of
information related to two quadruple homicides that shook Wichita shortly
before Christmas.
Some residents aren't bothered by court-ordered seals.
"Nobody wants these guys to get off, if they're guilty," said east Wichita
resident Phil Murray. "If sealing the information can do that, I'm for it."
Others wonder if authorities are hampering their investigation by shutting
out the public -- and whether all the secrecy is in the best interest of the
community.
"The more people know what's going on, the more people can work together and
look out for each other," said June Bailey, who lives in west Wichita.
San Antonio Express-News 01/12/01
City reinforces records battle
http://www.hearstnp.com/san_antonio/bea/news/stories/san/storypage.cfm?xla=sae
n&xlb=180&xlc=164956&xld=180
by Adolfo Pesquera
Having lost the first appeal in the city's effort to withhold Police
Department "use-of-force" reports from the public, the city attorney this
week received City Council approval to hire a legal expert to evaluate the
city's chances of winning an appeal in the Texas Supreme Court.
The council's decision Thursday was a formality because the firm of Wallace
Jefferson has been active on the suit for weeks.
The San Antonio Express-News sued two years ago in defense of the public's
right to access government administrative records.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch 01/12/01
Group wants court to oversee Clinton e-mail transfer to archives
http://www.postnet.com/postnet/News/wires.nsf/National/7DDDC241A4009190862569D
20074A53F?OpenDocument
by Greg Toppo
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A conservative legal group that has fought for access to
thousands of lost Clinton administration e-mails wants a judge to oversee the
transfer of the restored files to the National Archives after Clinton leaves
office.
Judicial Watch has dogged Clinton with lawsuits throughout his two terms,
most recently taking the administration to court to force production of the
e-mails. The group on Friday asked U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth to
appoint a special master to oversee the transfer of the records to the
archives.
Peter A. Kurilecz CRM, CA
Richmond, Va
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